Sorry for the inconvenience....

Due to a certain spammer that has some how accessed my Blog, I had to add the word verification to my comments.

This was only the 2nd time this has happened, but it was on my last 2 consecutive posts. For some reason, I don't see it as a coincidence.

Thanks for understanding.

Back to the Phlebotomist

Boy, this sure was something I haven't been missing out on these last few months!

Today I had to drive 30 minutes into the clinic for like a 2 minute blood draw. (Can I say I already miss having the RE only 10-15 minutes away?) I guess I can't really complain because it was over so quickly. I was expecting it to be a lot worse, but it was only two vials of blood, and really not that bad. I've heard some girls say they had over 10 vials drawn for these tests! The girl who took my blood had the tourniquet so tight I thought my arm was gonna fall off! Maybe that's what made the draw go so well?

Anyways, we are doing an Antinuclear antibody and Karyotype testing. These are the two tests that the new doctor wanted to run as part of our RPL (recurrent pregnancy loss) testing.

I found this statistic today and was kind of surprised by the figure:
•70% of first trimester losses due to chromosomal abnormalities.

Back in 2003, I had a large number of autoimmune disease tests done and nothing came back as positive, so I'm hoping the Antinuclear antibody is negative this time around as well. I already did the Anticardiolipins antibody and Lupus back in December and those were negative. Hopefully we continue to eliminate more factors from the list.

One good thing, I think, they don't consider blood draws office visits, so that means no co-pay! Hopefully this just goes as some random medical expense and not actually infertility related so it ticks away at our funds.

Hope - at our doorstep

For awhile now our motto has been about "Having Hope" and "Never Give Up".

This morning the doorbell rang and a package was sitting on the doorstep. When we opened the package, this is what we found.

Thank you for such a special gift! (You know who you are.)

We have a plan!

Our meeting with the new doctor went really well yesterday. We were very impressed and had a great overall feeling for the new doctor and clinic in general. We'll be seeing Dr Campbell at The Center for Reproductive Medicine in Minneapolis.

I'm about half-way through my cycle and when AF arrives, I'll call the clinic for a prescription for BCPs. I told him I ovulated through the one I was on before so he's gonna make sure I get on a higher dose one this time as quiet ovaries are crucial to starting an IVF cycle.

I'll be taking BCPs for about 3 weeks and then moving on to the stimulation drugs. It's too soon to have an actual calendar or protocol, but it sounds like ER (egg retrieval) will be early to mid May.

We have a few things that we need to verify through insurance and both of us have to get some blood work done and then there's a little more to do on my end, but it's mostly just pre-IVF stuff. Mock transfer, SIS (Saline infused sonogram) and the blood work. We've already had a lot of the required tests and they already know what the swimmers are capable of so we don't have to re-do any of those tests.

Doctor recommended IVF with ICSI (which we already knew based on the borderline normal hamster test). With ICSI you pay one additional flat fee and they'll do all the mature eggs, so you have a better chance of optimal fertilization rates.

It feels so good to know that we're just a few weeks away from getting another cycle started. While it's been so nice to not have the stress for the last few weeks, I'm ready to move on!

To my friends

Here we are under a week to our IVF consultation appointment. I know I wouldn't be where I am today without the generous love and support from all of my friends both in real life and through the internet. And for that, I say Thank You.

I haven't been around a lot lately, and for that, I'm sorry. There really hasn't been much for me to say over the last six weeks. Surprisingly, the time has actually gone by pretty fast. I can only hope that after our appointment we find ourselves with some sort of a schedule or at least an outline of a plan for what's to come.

One month from today

March 26th is the big day! We meet the new RE and have our IVF consultation. Four more weeks (and a day) and we'll be there.

Last week I completed my new patient paperwork and got that mailed off along with the release forms going to my old doctor and the urologist. Hopefully by the time our appointment is here the new clinic will have all of our previous records.

It still feels weird to be on a break, but it just makes the most sense. Why waste insurance dollars when we can move on to bigger and better treatment. In my heart, I know this is the right decision.

Come on March 26th!

My World in Pictures

Here's something a little different today thanks to the Blogger's Challenge.

1. What is your first name?


2. When is your birthday?


3. What kind of car do you want?


4. Where did/do you go to school?
Close enough!

5. What is your favorite season?


6. What is your favorite type of shoe?


7. What is your status?


8. What is your favorite movie?


9. What is your favorite song?


10. Who is your favorite Disney character?


11. What is your favorite clothing line?


12. What is your favorite vacation destination?


13. What is your favorite dessert?


14. What is your favorite letter?


15. What are you most afraid of?


16. What is your favorite TV show?


17. What annoys you the most?


18. What is your job?
(for now - aka unemployed)

19. What is your favorite animal?


20. How old are you?


Wanna play? Here's how:
1. Go to photobucket.com
2. Type in your answer for each question into the PhotoBucket search bar.
3. Only use the first two pages. Choose your favorite photo to represent your answer.
4. Copy the html and paste it here.
5. You can only answer in picture form